Lathemtown Historic District, Elizabeth W. and Luther J. Lathem House, 120 Orange Church Circle, Lathemtown

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-C. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Elizabeth W. and Luther J. Lathem House is located at 120 Orange Church Circle 20 in Cherokee County, Georgia. The resource sits at the intersection of Orange Church Circle and State Route 20 (SR The house is located at latitude: longitude: This point was taken from the center of the Elizabeth W. and Luther J. Lathem House. It was obtained on September 10, using Google Earth There is no restriction on its release to the public.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-C. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Elizabeth W. and Luther J. Lathem House is a contributing resource to the Lathemtown Historic District. The early twentieth-century residence supports Lathemtown s significance as an intact, rural historic district. The house stands as representation of the agricultural community s continued growth and development during the first half of the twentieth century. See the Lathemtown Historic District (HABS No. GA-2445) overview for further discussion of overall district significance. Historians: Marvin Brown, M.A., Senior Architectural Historian, AECOM Sarah Potere, Architectural Historian, AECOM Report Completed October

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-C. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Georgia Department of Transportation is implementing plans to widen State Route 20 from two to six lanes between Scott Road (near Canton) and North Corners Parkway (near Cumming). The project corridor spans approximately miles and falls within Cherokee and Forsyth Counties. As a result of this roadway expansion, all or part of the Elizabeth W. and Luther J. Lathem House will be demolished. Mitigation efforts were explored and a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was developed between the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Georgia Department of Transportation, and the Georgia State Historic Preservation Officer.

This Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documentation (historical narrative report and large format photography) was prepared in accordance with the stipulations of the MOA. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W. AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-C (Page 2) Description: The Elizabeth W. and Luther J. Lathem House stands on the west side of the Orange Church Circle loop at its eastern intersection with SR 20. The house shares its parcel with the Elizabeth W. and Luther J. Lathem Rental House (GA which sits approximately 50 -0 to its south. The early twentieth-century frame residence stands one-story tall. It is arranged in an L-shaped plan which includes a three-bay main block and a rear ell extending from its southeast corner.

The building rests on a stone and brick-pier foundation which has been infilled with both brick and concrete block. Aluminum siding clads the residence and either covers or replaces original weatherboards. A side-gabled roof clad with replacement standing-seam metal tops the building. Two front-facing gables are perched atop the north (front) side of the roof. They are symmetrically placed above the facade s first and third bays. At their center, each features a small, square opening, which has been boarded (Figure 3). A mid/late twentieth-century pedimented portico is centered on the front (north) facade. Supported by turned wooden posts, which rest upon a raised concrete slab, the portico features an aluminum-clad pediment and cornice returns clad with asphalt shingles.

The residence s centrally placed, primary entrance rests beneath the portico. Framed by an aluminum door surround, the opening holds a wood door featuring a vertical wood-panel surrounded by geometric arrangement of square and rectangular lights. The door is likely an early/mid twentieth-century replacement. The door is flanked on either side by full-height, six-over-six, triple-hung, wood-sash windows which fall outside the shelter of the portico and appear to be original. They are framed on either side by fixed, vinyl shutters, which are recent additions. Two six-over-six, double- hung, wood-sash windows are found on either gable end of the main block except the northwestern opening on the building s eastern gable end which has been converted to a door.

These openings flank original exterior-end, shouldered stone chimneys. The building s eastern gable-end chimney has been altered to accommodate an exterior fireplace, which is a late twentieth/early twenty-first-century alteration. The fireplace rests beneath a large, side-gabled portico which extends from the eastern end of the main block. Historic aerial imagery suggests this appendage was in placed by 1 It is supported at each its northern and southern outside corners by three, thin, wooden columns with Tuscan capitals. A single pilaster of identical style is found embracing the main 1 Historic Aerials, aerials, (image) aerial image search of 120 Orange Church Circle, Netronline, accessed September LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W. AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No.

GA-2445-C (Page 3) block of the house at the portico s northern and southern interior corners. The portico rests on a raised brick foundation topped with a poured concrete slab (Figure 4 and Figure 5). Extending to the building s south, the rear ell features the same cladding materials as the main block of the house. A shouldered, exterior-end chimney stack, which has been partially rebuilt with brick, embraces the ell s southern gable end. It is flanked on either side by the same six-over-six light windows found on the main block. An L-shaped, shed-roof addition embraces the western facade of the ell and the southern facade of the main block and may be an enclosed historic porch.

A five-paneled wood door approached by concrete steps is found on the southern elevation of this shed-roof addition and is placed directly to the left (south) of the addition s juncture with the original block. A large piece of wood sheathing is found to the right (south) of the doorway and wraps around to the western facade of the shed-roof addition. It likely covers an earlier opening (Figure 6). Three additional window openings are found on the shed-roof addition and include a four-over-four, double-hung wood-sash window (south facade), a three-over-one, double-hung, wood-sash window (south facade), and a six-light fixed window (east facade). All windows are set in aluminum surrounds (Figure 7).

History: Luther Jackson ( Jack or Luther ) Lathem married Elizabeth ( Lizzie or Annie ) West in He was the oldest child of Arizona D. and W.A. Lathem, who opened his general store in what was to become Lathemtown the following year. 2 County tax records assign the house a construction date of This conforms with the information in a deed, from W.A. Lathem to his son, for property on the south side of the Cummings and Canton road. The deed identifies the approximately -acre parcel s dimensions by referencing a distance from the front edge of [the] north veranda of a house, which is outlined within a drawing on the deed. The L-shaped residence continues to stand on the property.

3 The identified sale price of the parcel and house was 2 Georgia, U.S., Marriage Records From Select Counties, Luther Jackson Lathem, accessed June-August https://www.ancestry.com/; Mary Helen Cissell, Living, Laughing and Loving in Old Lathemtown (Orange, GA: Orange United Methodist Women, 3 Cherokee County Deed Book II/Page 338 Cherokee County Board of Tax Assessors, Property Record Search for 120 Orange Church Cir. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W. AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-C (Page 4) The census taken in April, just a month after the transaction places Jack and Lizzie in the house, as owned-mortgage free. Their children, Frank (age 3) and Clara (1-year-old), and Lizzie s brother, Warren West, lived with them.

Jack worked as a retail merchant at his father s general store. In the household included Frank Clara Lucile Williebee and Clara s daughter, Eloise Ten years later, only Clara and Eloise remained with Jack and Lizzie. 4 Jack and his brothers, Marvin and Charlie, took over the W.A. Lathem and Sons general store from their father, who died in They ran it until about Lizzie died in and Jack in 5 A plat map drawn in depicts the house and a second smaller dwelling on its lot to its south (addressed at 152 Orange Church Circle). Lucile Lathem Lyle Murray, executrix of her father s estate, transferred the property in to Eloise Lathem Smithwick (the daughter of her sister Clara) and two other nieces, Wanda Moore and Patsy Sturdivant. In Eloise acquired sole interest in the property.

In a year before her death, Eloise transferred the property for love and affection to her four children. 6

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-C. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Atlanta Constitution. Lathem. Obituary. August 22, Accessed April Lathem&match=58. Lucile Murray. Obituary. June 10, Accessed April 0Murray&match=1. Cherokee County Board of Tax Assessors. Property Records Search for 120 Orange Church Cir. Accessed March-April http://gis.cherokeega. com/ Cherokee County Clerk of Courts Office, Canton. Deed Book II, Page 4 U.S. Census Bureau, and Federal Censuses.

5 Cissell, Living, Laughing, Loving in Old Lathemtown, Lathem, Obituary, Atlanta Constitution, August 22, accessed April 6 Cherokee County Plat Book 15/Page 39 Cherokee County Deed Book 723/Page 226 Deed Book 268/Page 222 and Deed Book 12193/Page 97 Cissell, Living, Laughing, Loving in Old Lathemtown, Lucile Murray, Obituary, Atlanta Constitution, June 10, LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W. AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-C (Page 5) Deed Book Page Deed Book Page Deed Book Page 97, Plat Book 15, Page 39, Cissell, Mary Helen. Living Laughing and Loving in Old Lathemtown. Orange, GA: Orange United Methodist Church, Georgia, U.S., Marriage Records From Select Counties, Luther Jackson Lathem. Accessed June-August http://www.ancestry.com/. Netronline.

Historic Aerials: 120 Orange Church Circle. Internet Search Engine. Accessed September United States Bureau of the Census. United States Federal Census. Accessed April https://www.ancestry.com/. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W. AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-C (Page 6) Supplemental Materials 1. Figures Figure 1: Elizabeth W. and Luther J. Lathem House District Locator Map. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W. AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-C (Page 7) Figure 2: Elizabeth W. and Luther J. Lathem House Site Map. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W. AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-C (Page 8) Figure 3: House north (front) facade. View looking south. (Photograph by Sarah Potere, July LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W.

AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-C (Page 9) Figure 4: Oblique of House north (front) and east (side) facades. View looking southwest. (Photograph by Sarah Potere, July LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W. AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-C (Page 10) Figure 5: Oblique of House east (side) and south (rear) facades. View looking northwest. (Photograph by Sarah Potere, July LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W. AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-C (Page 11) Figure 6: House south (rear) facade. View looking north. (Photograph by Sarah Potere, July LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, ELIZABETH W. AND LUTHER J. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-C (Page 12) Figure 7: Oblique of house south (rear) and west (side) facades. View looking northeast.

(Photograph by Sarah Potere, July